Comet Volvo

More than 600 Comet staff at 12 UK locations have lost their jobs after the joint administrators axed most of its home delivery operation.

The collapse of the high street retailer has so far resulted in almost 900 redundancies while Deloitte continues to search for a buyer for all or parts of the business.

The 603 workers of the home delivery division are based at 12 hub locations across the country, including 66 at Skelmersdale, 62 at Coatbridge and 59 in Aylesbury.

Deloitte said the delivery network would remain in operation, but with a significantly reduced workforce in order to complete deliveries and support its repairs operation.

So far no redundancies have been made at Comet stores; however, Deloitte is not ruling out closing 41 stores if a buyer is not found before the end of November.

“Discussions continue to take place with parties who have expressed interest in parts of the business,” added Chris Farrington, joint administrator. “However, it is unfortunately necessary to begin a store closure programme and to scale back the company’s support functions.”

Norbert Dentressangle told MT that it continued to operate its contracts with Comet Group: “Comet’s home delivery platforms were managed entirely by Comet and the cessation of the home delivery operation has therefore had little impact,” said a spokeswoman.

“ND continues to operate as requested by the administrator and will do so for as long as required.”

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